Sack-cleaner.



No. 724,055. PATENTED MAR. 31, 1903..

' W. B. SGHUYLBR.

SACK CLEANER.

APPLICATION FILED 0OT.16, 1902. no MODEL. 2 sums-sum 1.

ms ncmms vsvzns co. FNOYO-UTHO. WASHINGYON, n. c

No. 724,055. PATENTED MAR. 31, 1903.

W. B. SOHUYLER. SACK CLEANER.

APPLICATION FILED OCT. 16, 19024 HO MODEL. y 2 SHEETS-BHEET 2.

anwntoz q/vihwoaeo v I aim UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM BEE SCHUYLER, OF ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI.

SACK-CLEAN ER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 724,055, dated March 31, 1903.

Application filed October 16, 1902. Serial No. 127,549. (No mfi'dei.)

T0 alt whom it may concern-.-

Be it known that I, WILLIAM BEE SCHUY- LER, a citizen of the United States, residing at St. Louis, in the State of Missouri, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Sack-Cleaners; and Ido declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to a machine for cleaning bags or sacks, particularly those which have contained flour; but it maybe used to clean any kind of bag or sack.

The object of the invention is to provide a machine which is simple of construction, highly efficient in use, and inexpensive of production and one in which the cleaning action is performed by agitating the sacks without heating, thereby preventing injury to the sacks during the process of cleansing.

WVith this and other minor objects in view the invention consists of certain novel features of construction, combination, and arrangement of parts, as will be hereinafter more fully described, and particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a vertical longitudinal section of a bag or sack cleaning machine embodying my invention. Fig. 2 is a vertical cross-section of the same. Fig. 3 is a sectional plan view.

Referring now more particularly to the drawings, 1 represents theinclosing casing of the machine, which is preferably of oblong rectangular form, but maybe of any suitable form and size. This casing is provided with doors 2 for the insertion and removal of the sacks, said doors forming the side and end walls of the machine and consisting, preferably, of wooden frames hinged at 2 to the casing and covered with thin foraminous ma terial 3, such as cheese-cloth, so as to allow air to freely circulate through the machine, but to prevent the escape therefrom of the flour or dirt from the sacks confined therein. Any desired number and arrangement of doors may be employed, and where the doors are not so arranged as to completely form the side and end walls the spaces unoccupied by the doors may be covered by foraminous maarms are fixed to the bars and are therefore a "relatively stationary. Arranged parallel with the bars 4 are other bars 6, which are conbetween and on opposite sides of the bars 4 and ca ry vertical arms 9, which reciprocate with said bars 6 and are therefore movable relatively to the arms 5. One end of the re ciprocating frame is connected by a pitman rod 10 with a crank 11 on a shaft 12, which shaft is supported by suitable brackets or standards 13 and carries tightand loose pulleys 14 and. 15, whereby the shaft may be driven and when driven will impart reciprocatory motion to said frame.

As shown clearly in Figs. 2 and 3, the arms 5 on each bar 4 are equal in number to the arms 9 in the bars 6 of the reciprocating frame, and normally said arms 5 and 9 are disposed alternately in transverse rows, which rows are constituted in the present instance by two stationary arms 5 and three reciprocating arms 9. 'Theserows are of a length to receive a certain size or certain sizes of sacks, a row of live arms spaced a determined distance apart being adapted for the reception of a seventeen-inch sack when all the arms are used or of a twelve-inch sack when four arms (two stationary and two reciprocating) are used. Hence I may easily adapt the machine to clean a number of different sizes of sacks by the simple process of increasing the num ber of arms in a row, whereby difierent sizes of sacks may be cleaned at one time by one and the same machine.

Heretofore it has been" proposed to place sacks to be cleaned on a certain size of frame and to clean the sacks by the action of beaters. This is objectionable for two reasons-- first, because the use of a certain size of frame permits of the cleaning only of sacks of one size in the machine, so that if the operator should have several lots of differentsized sacks to clean he would be required to use several machines, one for each size of sack, and, second, because the action of heating the sacks to remove the dirt and dust therefrom weakens the sacks by the beating out of but and threads and the straining of the material. My invention is designed to obviate these objections in a simple and effective manner. It has i een before stated that the rows of arms may permit of the application of different-sized sacks, which overcom es the first objection, and I overcome the second by cleaning the sacks by agitation (without blows) and wind-pressu re, whereby the dust and dirt are removed without causing any strain upon the material of which the sack is made.

The operation of cleaning the sacks is accomplished as follows: The doors of the easing are opened and the sacks placed one upon each transverse row of arms, the higher stationary arms 5, which project up into the sacks, serving to support the sacks, while the movable arms 9, which also project up into the sacks, but to a less distance, set up the agitation. After the sacks have been applied and the doors closed the reciprocatory frame is set in motion, and the arms 9 are thereby caused to vibrate or agitate the sacks without beating, causing the sacks to shake or flutter at a rapid rate, whereby the dirt is loosened up and dislodged from the sacks. This shaking action or motion of the sacks, which is equivalent to the hand motion of shaking the dust out of a rug, butmuch more edective, produces within the casing a bacl -at1d-forth circulation of the air,which blows the loosened particles from the sacks and materially assists in dislodging the dust and dirt. It will thus be seen that the sacks are effectively cleaned without heating and Without straining or otherwise injuring them.

If desired, the reciprocating frame may have a bottom 16, of foraminous material, serving as a sieve to retain the coarser particles of the materials shaken from the bags or sacks and allow the fine particles to pass down into a removable drawer 17, thereby obviating subsequent sifting.

The arms 9 may be elastic or inelastic, so as to independently vibrate or remain relatively stationary as the reciprocatory frame reciprocates. A vibratory action of these arms will assist in cleaning the sacks Without beatmanta ing, but by merely morevigorously shaking the sacks. i

From the foregoing description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, the construction and operation of the invention will be readily understood Without requiring a more extended explanation.

Various changes in the form, proportion, and the minor details of construction maybe resorted to without departing from the principle or sacrificing any of the advantages of this invention.

Having thus described myinvention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. In a sack-cleaner, a row of arms to receive the sack, some of said arms being stationary to support the sack and the others movable to shake the sack, and means for imparting direct motion to said movable arms, substantially as described.

2. In a sack-cleaner, a row of arms to receive the sack, some of said arms being stationary to support the sack and the others movable to shake the sack, and means for re ciprocatiug said movable arms, substantially as set forth.

3. In a sack-cleaner, two series of arms, one being stationary and the other movable, the stationary series being adapted to support the sacks and the movable series to agitate the sacks, substantially as described.

4. In a sack-cleaner, the combination of an inclosing frame, a sack-hold ing frame therein provided with supports for the sacks, a reciprocating agitator adapted to im part a swinging or fluttering motion to the sacks to agitate them and remove the dirt and dust therefrom, said agitator carrying a sieve to separate the coarser from the finer particles of dirt, a receptacle into which the finer particles of dirt are adapted to drop, and means for reciprocating said agitator, substantially as described.

5. In a sack-cleaner, the combination with a casing, of stationary arms for supporting the sacks, reciprocatory arms arranged alternately with the stationary arms to produce transverse rows, and means for reciprocating the reciprocatory arms, substantially as shown and described.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand in presence of two subscribingwitnesses.

VILLIAM BEE SCI'IUYLER.

Witnesses:

WILFRED A. SIMPSON, JOHN W. MAHEN. 

